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Lesson 39 Coding Shooting

  • You have a town to save and a dragon to shoot! This is a great chance to show off your creativity.

Objectives​

    1. Assemble all the parts of the shooting game
    1. Code the micro:bit to detect laser hit signals and score high points.

Materials​

  • 1 x Shooting Game Box
  • 1 x Light Sensor
  • 1 x Servo
  • 1 x ring:bit
  • 1 x micro:bit
  • 5 x Screws
  • 3 x AAA Batteries

Step 1 - Set Up Your Town!​

  • Insert all the mountains and bushes into the paths of your town.
  • Mount the servo into the hole in the pop-up center.
  • Thread the servo wires through the hole and out of the front of the box.

Step 2 - Install Your micro:bit​

  • Mount the micro:bit onto the ring:bit and secure it with 5 screws.
  • Insert all 3 batteries into the back of the battery pack.
  • Toggle the left switch to P2 and the right switch to OFF. We will turn it on after we code the micro:bit.

Step 3 - Connect All the Components!!​

  1. Connect the servo to port P2 on the ring:bit. Make sure the brown wire connects to G and the yellow wire connects to P2.
  2. Connect the light sensor to port P1 on the ring:bit. The black wire should connect to G.

Step 4 - Coding!​

Step 5 - The Real Challenge - Calibration​

Calibrate your dragon to ensure it flies back and forth across the sky instead of facing the ground repeatedly.

  • With the servo firmly in place - code the micro:bit to rotate the servo to 0 degrees when Button A is pressed, and 180 degrees when Button B is pressed.
  • After pressing Button A, place the servo arm onto the servo head and observe its position when Button B is pressed. If the servo arm points too far down or to the side, adjust the arm and reduce the coding angle. (e.g., Adjust 0 - 180 degrees to 20 - 160 degrees)
  • Replace the servo with the dragon arm at the same angle and tighten it securely.

Step 6 - Calibration Part 2​

For the light sensor. We must capture the current light level, and when the laser passes by, the sensor will alert the micro:bit that the light intensity has increased.

  • Thread the light sensor through the hole below the pop-up window and out the front of the box.
  • Place the light sensor into the dragon's mouth and secure it in place.
  • Code the micro:bit to detect the light level via the light sensor when a button is pressed.

Step 7 - Put It All Together.​

Now we want to be able to stop the dragon when it gets hit and also increase the score!

  • We should combine the two sets of code and use IF logic blocks to check if we have a hit.
  • If we get a hit, we change the icon on the micro:bit, pause for a moment, then change it back to the default icon.
  • ELSE (if we do not detect a hit) then we allow the servo to move as normal.
  • Don't like coding on your own - Find the full code here!
  • Additionally - Add more blocks to increase the score when the dragon is hit.
  • Complete!